In the Aernoult–Rousset affair, the French Left organized to protest France's North African military prisons and expatriate the body of a conscript who died there in 1909.
While the military classified Albert Aernoult's death as a stroke, the witness Émile Rousset claimed that it had been assault by their commanding officers.
Councillor of State Pierre Gilbert de Voisins [fr] convinced him to join the French army, but Aernoult did not know this meant the African battalion.
Deputy Adrien Veber [fr] read the chamber a letter on from 15 members of Aernoult's unit attributing the cause of death to their commanding officers.
He was invited to speak with the Oran war council on the pretense of sharing his account of Aernoult's death, but ultimately to be tried for insubordination and sentenced to five years in prison, on February 2, 1910.
[5] The affair demonstrated how the French antimilitarist Left, normally prone to infighting, could unify for a cause, namely the repatriation of Aernoult's corpse and a protest against military prisons.